That's when the driver of a 2011 Ford van, who was attempting to take a left from a southbound lane of Avenue B, plowed into her causing serious bodily trauma, police said.

An EVG reader, who took the above photo, said that four ambulances were at the scene at one point. According to witnesses, the van belonged to Whole Foods. DNAinfo reported that "the driver stayed on the scene, and was later cited for failure to yield and failure to exercise due care."

23 comments:

Anonymous
said...

As usual in this town, killer drivers don't get so much as a slap on the wrist and the cops are too busy ticketing cyclists for running reds at three-way stops to put any fear into dangerous motorists.

Amen. The taxi driver who jumped a curb in midtown last week and severed the right leg of a British tourist had 9 points on his record and three serious moving violations, for which he was fined a grand total of about $450. Unless and until these perps--and they are perps--are fined real money and, in some egregious cases, do jail time and have their licenses revoked, this sort of stuff will continue. What has to happen is for the cost/benefit calculation to change in a big way. Every day I see at least one cabbie speed up through a yellow or even red light, because he thinks the benefit to him outweighs the cost. Blame it on the criminal entity known as government.

As for cabbies... I feel TLC could deal with this if they had the balls. NYPD has to step up enforcement and actually ticked to speeding / running reds / reckless driving. And then TLC should suspend a cabbie for a week after EACH violation. They'd calm down very fast, but that of course assumes that NYPD and TLC would put some effort into encouraging safe driving, which they never will. And I have a strong feeling that a higher proportion of NYC police officers drive cars than among the general population, which is why they tend tend to let things slide if they see motorists breaking the law.

Agreed. So sorry to hear about this, and also about this week's horrible accident in Midtown.

With speeding taxis, the risk/reward scenario depends on speed, fares and tips, when it ought to be about safety first, shift pay(?!) plus tips. Same with delivery vehicles. I'm sure there is a lot of talk about safety, but there is also the "profit motive"... and unfortunately, pedestrians, especially older people, are not a significant part of the equation.

I would like to hear what the mayoral candidates have to say about this... maybe?!

This is incredibly sad, and all too common. It's only Saturday, and we've had 3 accidents at this intersection this weekend. People come off the FDR and are still doing highway speeds. The traffic from the Williamsburg backs up onto Clinton, and those folks are always in a panic to make the right onto Houston to get out of the Clinton street jam. There are no traffic cameras, like they have over at Houston and Ludlow. We have cameras all around the intersection for building security, and we routinely capture accidents. We call the police, and they express no interest in the footage. 2 weeks ago, we had a car on video hit a citibiker.

And of course someone made this as a case to propagandized rogue bicyclists and justify them running through red lights. Tells you their self-involved nature. Dangerous operators of a vehicle are dangerous, regardless of the mode of transportation.

It won't happen, but what would really improve Houston Street would be to narrow it and remove one lane going in each direction. Force drivers to stop thinking of it as a crosstown freeway and make it a normal city street.

Anon 7:11 PM: Yes, any moving thing can be dangerous. But you're delusional if you agree with NYPD prioritizing ticketing cyclists over car drivers. Scofflaws in both groups deserve tickets, but it's sickening that NYPD goes almost only after cyclists (low hanging fruit; look at speeding ticket statistics published after the tragic incident on 2nd Ave) rather than car drivers, who KILL and MAIM hundreds of NYers each year. Great priorities, NYPD.

I strongly doubt that individual cops are en masse deciding to not go after traffic violators. I'm pretty sure that the absence of traffic enforcement is decided from above and the likely motive for that is to avoid paying cops overtime when they have to appear in court when someone contests a traffic ticket. Penny-wise and pound-foolish ("pound of flesh" in some of these cases).

953 Pm, the only delusional people are bicyclists who think that they should not stop at red lights, ride the wrong way, disregard and not yield to pedestrians who have the right of way, and think that they are no more dangerous than drivers of cars and that the law and police should just ignore them and pay attention and give tickets to ONLY the drivers of vehicles. Delusional. Please.

Anon 12:04 AM: When is the last time a cyclist killed a pedestrian in NYC, care to remind us?

NYPD's priorities are egregiously wrong. They should be ticketing both; if they don't have the resources, they should be targeting car drivers who kill and maim. Maybe you or someone you know will be next.

A bicyclist may not have killed a pedestrian, that doesn't mean they're a menace, but they definitely have caused far more injuries to pedestrians and have been getting away with it because they just speed up, cowards that they are. Some accidents are caused by bicyclists, pedestrians and drivers avoiding those running through red lights, not obeying the traffic signs, and going the wrong way. Keep being delusional and self-involved and self-entitled.

Anon 12:14 PM: Please provide a citation for your claim that cyclists have caused more injuries to pedestrians than cars have.

Why are you calling me "delusional and self-involved and self-entitled"? Did I not say TWICE that cops need to ticket everyone who breaks the law? Practice your reading comprehension. Fact is that 3,000 lb cars have been practically weapons on the streets of NYC. Your blind hate for cyclists and blind love for motor vehicles apparently make it okay in your book that NYPD doesn't even bother giving out speeding tickets to drivers, while speeding is one of the most common causes of accidents in NYC.

To go back to the case of this poor woman, do you think it's appropriate that the driver got a summons for causing this woman's death and will pay no consequences whatsoever? You keep bringing everything back to cyclists who had nothing to do with all the accidents Grieve just posted about, but conveniently ignore the outrageous lack of charges for a negligent driver who KILLED a woman.

That's sad. When feasible, I use the subway entrance at 1st Avenue to cross -- down one side and up the other._________________________

I always do that! That's why I have an unlimited card; any subway I can enter and cross streets below rather than above ground, I do. (Of course, I ride the subway seven days a week, too, so it works out.)

But seriously, I'm scared of NYC drivers to the point that—when I'm not giving them the finger—I avoid them like the plague.

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